Members of the LGBT community and their allies are
expressing outrage after a Bay Area transgender teenager was charged with
battery after defending herself during a schoolyard fight two months ago.

Jewlyes Gutierrez, a 16-year-old sophomore at Hercules Middle/High
School, was charged January 8 with battery by the Contra Costa County District
Attorney's office after an investigation into the November incident. Three girls
who allegedly attacked her, meanwhile, have not been charged.

The decision by senior deputy district attorney Daniel
Cabral has caused a firestorm and upset Gutierrez's family, who are trying
their best to protect her and want the DA's office to drop the charges.

"I feel hurt and frustrated because [the other girls
involved in the fight are] not getting charged and me getting charged battery
for a crime," said Gutierrez.

Her attorney told the Bay Area Reporter
that she is "confused" by Cabral's
decision to file criminal charges.

"It's confusing as to why Jewlyes is being further
victimized when she's the one who is already being harassed and tormented ...
due to her gender identity and then to have adults subject her to the court
system," said Kaylie Simon, a public defender at the Contra Costa Public
Defender's Office who was assigned to Gutierrez's case.

"The district attorney's office is supposed to
represent the community and keep everyone safe regardless of sexual orientation
or gender identity," added Simon, who hopes Cabral will listen to the
community.

Gutierrez is scheduled for a pre-trial conference in
juvenile court February 5.

Simon is hopeful that Cabral will dismiss the case.

Cabral isn't speaking about his decision to charge Gutierrez
or why no action was taken against the other students involved in the fight. He
became angry when the B.A.R. asked if charges
were going to be filed against the other girls.

"I can't speak about the case at all," he said.

The Transgender Law Center and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight
Education Network are among the organizations that have rallied to support
Gutierrez. A change.org petition started by her sister has more than 120,000
supporters.

Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla (D-Concord) this week sent a
letter to Contra Costa County District Attorney Mark Peterson asking that the
charges against Gutierrez be dismissed.

Bias at play?

The family, community members, and LGBT activists suspect
bias is at play because of Gutierrez's gender identity.

Police reports from the November 13 incident are missing
from the Hercules Police Department's website, pointed out Jeff Koertzen, a gay
man who is controller of the Contra Costa County Democratic Party and a member
of the state party's executive board.

The B.A.R. found that
the police reports, excluding the week October 30-November 6, 2013, were indeed
missing. An email to Connie Van Putten, reserve detective and public
information officer of the Hercules Police Department, bounced. When the B.A.R.
called and was directed to Van Putten's voicemail,
she responded immediately.

Van Putten blamed the department's strong spam system for
the bounced email, in spite of past email correspondence with the B.A.R.
As for the missing police reports, she said she was
on vacation from October 15-November 15, 2013 and couldn't explain why the
reports weren't available on the website. She said someone else was taking the
reports while she was out.

Investigative reporter Jennifer Lopez and the online TransAdvocate
news site are claiming that Van Putten is prejudiced against transgender
individuals.

Van Putten, a 70-year-old Republican retired police officer,
told Lopez on December 4 that she recommended to the district attorney's office
that charges be brought against Gutierrez and the other students. She singled
out Gutierrez because she is listed as "male" both on the police
report and school documents, wrote Cristan Williams, editor of the TransAdvocate,
who interviewed Lopez for an article published January 14.

Throughout the interview with Van Putten, she refused to
refer to Gutierrez as female, reported Lopez and Williams. Because she
perceived Gutierrez as male the incident didn't fall under hate crime
protections.

In the phone call with the B.A.R.
, Van Putten didn't dispute making recommendations
for the district attorney's office to file charges.

This isn't the first time Van Putten was involved with a
controversy in the LGBT community. In 1991, when she was acting police chief of
the Union City Police Department, she defended the department's tracking of
people living with HIV and AIDS to protect officers after it was discovered, the
Associated Press reported at that time.

Koertzen also called into question other similar incidents
involving students at the high school where the district attorney didn't press
charges and allowed the school district to handle the incidents, he told the B.A.R.

Koertzen is working with a group of people to pressure
Cabral to drop the case and possibly get California Attorney General Kamala
Harris involved, he said.

Bullied for years

Gutierrez and her family sat down with the B.A.R.
for an exclusive interview on January 12.

It was the first time a majority of the family discussed Gutierrez's
transition (Jewlyes is the name on her birth certificate), the bullying she's
endured throughout her life leading up to the fight at school, and the charges
she now faces, they said.

The family was instructed by Simon not to speak about
details of the case. They were, however, able to speak generally about the incident
and the bullying Gutierrez has endured throughout her life.

Two years after Gutierrez, who is of Filipino and Puerto
Rican descent, began her transition, her family still struggles with pronoun
usage. They are open about their challenges and how much they've learned
working with therapists and a social worker.

They have come to "realize that she needed to express
herself," said Debra Gutierrez, her aunt and adopted mother.

While Gutierrez said that she knew for certain that she was
a girl, not a boy, around eighth grade, her birth mother, Diana Classen, 49,
said she knew her daughter was different since she was 5 years old. She never
wanted to play with boy's toys or with the boys. She always played with girl's
toys and hung out with girls, she said.

Debra Gutierrez, a 53-year-old mother of three, adopted her
sister's two children, Elisha "Eli" Gutierrez, 18, and Jewlyes. Her
ex-husband, Fernando Poquiz, 55, didn't adopt either child, but he is still
involved in the family.

In spite of still referring to Gutierrez as "he"
at times, they treat her like their other daughters, teaching her how to dress
and behave appropriately as a girl, they said.

Gutierrez is a typical teenage girl who likes to talk on the
phone with her friends and practice putting on makeup. She refers to her uncle
as her father, who jokingly added that "staring at herself in the
mirror" is one of her favorite pastimes, as family members and Gutierrez
laughed and smiled shyly.

While she enjoys studying politics, history, and chemistry,
school hasn't been the enjoyable experience she would like it to be.

On November 13, after years of harassment, and after
reporting previous incidents to school administrators and teachers with no
response, Gutierrez fought back, according to media reports. She allegedly hit
one of her classmates, who days before "spit gum in her hand" that
was "full of saliva" and "threw it in my face," the
teenager told ABC 7 News.

Three African American teenage girls allegedly chased and
attacked Gutierrez. The incident was recorded on a cellphone camera by another
student and uploaded to YouTube. Gutierrez's brothers and sisters discovered it
November 14, they said.

Gutierrez and the three girls were suspended for two days.

All of the girls have since returned to school, which has
been uncomfortable for Gutierrez. She wanted to go on independent study, but
her family, social worker, and therapist advised against it, they said.

The girls who were allegedly bullying Gutierrez haven't touched
her since, but that doesn't mean they are allowing her to go to school
peacefully either, she told the B.A.R.

"I feel negative attention and energy around
them," said Gutierrez, who takes the bus and has classes with the girls.
Eli has begun taking the bus with his sister.

Debra Gutierrez simply wants her daughter to be safe at
school.

"I just want my daughter to be treated fairly at school
and to be safe at school as well as to succeed in school," she said, pointing
out that it's not Gutierrez's fault that her case is bringing the school's
bullying and harassment issues to light.

She hopes "it brings about changes to the school policy
and fair treatment for people who are different."